The situation caused by the coronavirus has made a strong blow to the wood industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is shown by the fact that its exports in the first nine months of this year fell by about 62.5 million BAM compared to the same period in 2019.
Judging by the data of the Foreign Trade Chamber (STK) of BiH, the biggest blow was suffered by the producers of parquet and other profiled wood, whose exports were cut by 17.3 million BAM (from 41.4 million to 24.1 million), Nezavisne writes.
The export of boards and veneers also decreased, from 57.7 million to 50.1 million BAM. The only increase, when we talk about exports, was recorded in the sector of construction carpentry (from 70.1 million to 78 million BAM) and prefabricated wooden houses, which increased by more than three million BAM (from 11.4 million to 14.5 million BAM).
BiH, of all these product groups, exports the most furniture.
”The share of furniture exports was 43.2
The crisis, unionists say, has affected not only companies but also workers. –
With the appearance of the coronavirus, about 2,500 workers in BiH in the wood industry lost their jobs, but we cannot say that this is a termination of the contract, but an expiration, because workers in this sector mostly work part-time,” says Lejla Catic, the President of the Independent Trade Union of Forestry, Wood and Paper Processing of BiH.
She added that the situation in wood processing has improved and a larger number of workers have been returned to work, but that the problem is that certain employers have late salaries.
Apart from exports, the crisis has further affected the import of these products in BiH.
”For the nine months of 2020, the total import of the wood sector amounted to 270,692,780 BAM or 17% less than in the same period last year,” said the STK BiH.
